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The Supercross Monster Energy Cup is the biggest Supercross event of the year. It's so big for Ryan Villopoto that he chose to race it instead of The Motocross of Nations. In case you don't know why, he is claiming it's because he needed to get ankle surgery right after the Nationals instead of waiting until after the Motocross of Nations. This way he would have more time to be healed up 100% before the 2014 Supercross opener at Anaheim. Who knows for sure, only RV. Most people think it's because Monster is offering 1,000,000.00 (yes that's one million dollars) for the rider who can win all 3 motos, which RV did in 2011. Watch it live on Saturday Oct 19th at 9:00 PM EST on the Fox Sports 2 network.
Learn The 55 Absolute Motocross Techniques these top riders use at: www.motocrossdvds.com

Please "follow" my motocross riding techniques blog, right here on ThumperTalk.com. There I'll be sharing the techniques necessary to ride motocross faster, smoother, safer and even with more fun!
You can find my Blog here:
http://www.thumpertalk.com/blog/4-gary-semics-motocross-schools/
When you get there, before you do anything, please click the "Follow This Blog" button. Then, when I post new tips, you'll automatically be notified.
And, if you like what I have to say, please considering sharing a link to my blog with your buddies on Facebook, Google +, etc... I'd be more appreciative!
Thanks in advance for following!
All the best,
Gary Semics
TT Motocross Riding Technique Expert

Wheelies are an essential skill that you need to perform on the trail to help conquer situations such as logs, rock ledges, creek banks, sand whoops, etc. There are four types of wheelies that you will use. The first one is from a dead stop and it is the one that allows you to learn all of the necessary wheelie skills the easiest while remaining the safest. Sit to the rear of the seat finding the best compromise between being far enough back to maximize your body weight/traction on the rear tire, but not too far back that you get into a funky body position. Use a little bit of throttle but a lot of clutch, letting it out smoothly but aggressively to help pop the front wheel up. If you are struggling to get the front wheel up either sit back further, or use a little more throttle, or pop the clutch out a little faster, or a combo of all these things. An auto clutch works pretty good doing this first type of wheelie, although you may need to load up the auto clutch by dragging the rear brake initially to help provide a little more "snap" to the power delivery.
Start off getting the wheel up just a little bit off the ground and then as you build your confidence start to challenge yourself to get it higher in the air. On the trail you only need to do a wheelie as high as 3 feet, but when practicing this you need to do it up to 6 feet, straight up and down vertical. Doing it to this height gives you a bigger skill range and comfort zone while popping a wheelie, plus it really reinforces the use of the rear brake as the safety feature to stop you from looping out. When the front wheel comes up too high off the ground out of your comfort zone the natural reaction for the majority of riders is to take both feet off the footpegs and get ready to step off the back of the bike. In this situation you need to retrain your brain to the correct automatic reaction which is to keep your feet on the footpegs and apply the rear brake to bring the front wheel back down and "save it".
So when practicing your wheelies you need to push yourself to the point of trying to loop yourself out, and then obviously use the rear brake so as you don't. Once you are able to confidently get the front wheel up high, and to control it at that height, you will be able to easily and safely conquer those difficult advanced trail situations, plus be able to impress the hell out your mates by pulling some pretty mad long wheelies.
G'day!
Shane
http://www.shanewatts.com

Hey TT'ers, here's a short video I did that breaks down the techniques & skills necessary to maximize your speed & control through flat, slippery corners. Give it a watch and post up any questions that you have for me (comments section below). I'll do my best to point you in the right direction. How's your flat corning speed & control? What's giving you the most trouble? Let's get a good discussion going on this topic; it's an important one if you want to win races.
If you'd like more of my riding tips, browse my blog here on ThumperTalk or my website at http://gsmxs.com If you'd like to be notified when I post new riding tips, subscribe by clicking the "follow" button (upper right). Gary Semics Professional MX Trainer

In muddy and sandy conditions your motorcycle will move around a lot more while under acceleration therefore you will need to be much more attentive to maneuvering your upper body weight side to side to help maintain balance and to achieve the best acceleration. This allows you to keep the throttle on instead of hesitating with it off while trying to regain your lost balance. Selecting a higher gear usually helps with putting the power to the ground when riding in mud. Generally speaking the faster you are going the more balance you will have due to the gyroscopic effect of the motion in both wheels, plus there will not be as much mud in the knobbies due to it being flicked off which will provide for better traction.
In slippery or loose conditions it is very important to move further to the rear of your bike so as to increase the effect your body weight has on gaining more traction at the rear tire. If the rear tire hooks up and you start wheelieing too high just basically leave the throttle at the same position, but pull the clutch in the necessary amount to decrease the drive to the rear tire which will lower the front wheel back to the ground. On up hills or when stuck on trail obstacles it’s important to be real effective at putting the power to the ground with great throttle and clutch control and coordination. Generally, it’s better to use the lower portion of the powerband and the torque of the motor so as that the rear tire has more chance of hooking up. If you are stopped you may need to give a quick burst of power and exaggerate your body movement to gain some initial forward motion before backing the throttle off to help the rear tire hook up. You don’t want to keep the rear tire spinning wildly as you won’t get much traction and it will be very easy to slide out and lose balance. You need to find the best balance between wheel spin and hooking up to achieve the maximum acceleration.
About Shane
Dirtwise Academy of Off-Road Riding
Instructional DVD's

Many of us are self taught riders and have become pretty skilled. But, the fact is, to ride fast with control requires that you master a whole series of skills, some seemly silly and/or elementary. If you're someone that is looking to improve, I'd like to suggest that you follow TT resident riding expert, Gary Semics. Here's trained some of the bigs like McGrath, so without putting too finer point on it, he knows his schitzle. He now has a riding tip blog on ThumperTalk, where you can easily follow him. Here's a link to blogs: http://www.thumpertalk.com/blogs
Here's how you follow Gary (upper right of any blog page): If you're serious about riding better, faster, and with more control, follow his blog on ThumperTalk and even feel free to comment on his tips. While he's still an active trainer, he will reply to questions as time allows. We're privileged to have access to such a great resource, so take advantage of what he's offering. The price is right (free!) Here's a few shots of the man himself..

Understanding the secrets below will enable you to have a lot more speed and control into and through the corners. Most times what you think you know isn't enough. Many times the rest of what you need to know has been right there the entire time...you just didn't recognize it.
The most critical part of the corner is at the transition. What is the transition? It's where you go from controlling the bike with the brakes to controlling it with the clutch and throttle. There can't be any coasting between. You go from braking to accelerating. How simple is that? Now that you know it you can easily and consistently be doing it correctly at a slow pace, then you can start adding speed to it. Once you have it down you will be amazed how much faster your corners will be.
Here's an example to help you understand just how easy this secret is applied. When entering a corner if you coast between braking and accelerating you give up a lot of your control because the brakes give you over 50% of your control. The way you must compensate for this lose of control is to slow down. But at the same time if you don't enter the corner fast enough you don't need to ride the brakes longer and harder. In another example lets say you enter the corner faster but then brake too hard. If you hit the front brake too hard you may knife the front wheel and/or slide it out. Rear brake to hard...kill the engine...slide out and so on. Not braking hard enough isn't going to work either as you will over shoot the corner. This is why it's vital to get very skilled at controlling the brakes while you are feeling what's needed. Riding with more control is way more fun. There is more info. on this in my DVD # 2 Volume 3 Series. Check it out. http://www.gsmxs.com/dvds/volume-3/dvd-2-motocross-braking-techniques
Most times when you are several feet from the transition this braking control can be maintained with a light touch of both the front and rear brakes as you begin to transfer to the clutch and throttle. In other conditions it may be a lot more aggressive braking before more aggressive clutch and throttle control. Then there is the entire range between feathering the brakes and locking them up. Again, you have to control the brakes as you are feeling what is needed not only to slow down but to control the bike...making it do exactly what you want it to do...hold the same angle, cut shorter, go wider, steer with the rear wheel, with the front wheel. It's all done with the brakes and your body movements, AWESOME FEELING WHEN YOU GET IT DOWN!!
Now that you got this technique secret you can begin riding with more control and way more fun. Get more secrets and techniques for riding with control in all types of corners with my two volume 3 DVDs #4 Hard Slick Corner Techniques http://www.gsmxs.com/dvds/volume-3/dvd-4-hard-slick-corner-techniques and #5 Berm Corner Techniques http://www.gsmxs.com/dvds/volume-3/dvd-5-motocross-berm-corner-techniques These techniques are easy, fun and the way to go for doing corners.
If you want to feel massive improvements riding your dirt bike purchase my "Motocross Braking Technique DVDs or Streams", a very small investment that will bring priceless results: http://www.gsmxs.com/category/dvds/value-pack
Gary; thanks for your personal help throughout my career. Your methods and strategies made my practice and training time much more effective. (Jeremy McGrath)
"Motocross Corner Speed - Beyond the Basics": http://www.gsmxs.com/dvds/volume-2/dvd-4-motocross-corner-speed

Riding and racing Offroad motorcycles is an awesome passion that so many of us have, and at which we all desire to become not only more skilled and safer at but also faster. One of the hardest parts of improving your skills is to get into the mentality of continually spending a small to significant amount of time each week practicing specific skills exercises so as to fast tack your learning instead of just pounding out laps or miles of trail. It is very important to spend a quick 5 minutes doing each exercise before your next race, or trail ride. This allows you to build your confidence and skill, plus also most effectively warm-up the specific muscles you're about to use.
A great exercise for reinforcing the four fundamentals of riding skill (body position, throttle/clutch coordination, balance, and confidence) is the Slow Ride exercise where you ride as slowly as possible without putting your feet down. Having great balance allows you to maximize your momentum on the trail especially in more difficult conditions like mud, deep sand, hills, and rock sections.
For superior flat cornering technique set up the Square exercise (10 foot wide square with 4 cones), preferably in some very slippery but consistent conditions, and ride continual laps gradually getting faster until you are able to slide/drift your bike around the Square without interruption for at least 6 laps. Use the four key points of cornering (body position, lean angle, throttle position, and counter steering) to control the slide and guide your bike where you want it to go - it's a great feeling when you get it mastered!!! This skill will be a huge benefit in the next mud race or just when you are pushing the limits and the tires are breaking traction.
The best all around exercise for Offroad riders and racers to practice is the Figure 8 Corner Rut. The precise front wheel placement required, as well as the aggressive acceleration skills, correct body position, and supreme confidence needed to rail a rut also transition heaps to help conquer all other trail or track situations.
A high quality Riding school or Instructional DVD will give you the breakdown of all of the many necessary skills exercises, and how to perform them at the highest level - constantly practice these exercises in the future, especially the ones that you are struggling with, and you will see immediate and huge improvements with your riding skills.
Keep the rubber side down!
Shane
Former World and US National champion Shane Watts operates the highly acclaimed DirtWise Academy of Offroad Riding school and Instructional DVDs. For more information, please visit www.shanewatts.com.
>>> discuss this tip

With really tight turns on the trail it is nearly essential to be able to perform the brake slide technique to complete these corners the quickest and most efficiently. By not performing the brake slide in these situations you risk riding off the edge of the trail because the turning circle of your bike is not great enough by just steering around the corner.
As you approach the corner enter it generally as far to the outside as possible with a significant amount of speed so you can lock up the rear wheel and skid it for at least 10 feet (3 meters). While you have the rear tire locked up you need to have the bike leant over - the result of this action is that the rear of the bike will start to slide around. You want to keep the rear tire sliding out until it gets to approximately between 1/4 and 1/3 around the corner. At this point you need to release the rear brake and get on the gas so as you can then roost out of the corner, controlling the resulting power slide with the 4 key points of Drifting.
You are able to achieve no transition, and thus no interruption, between the braking slide and power slide by using the Slow Ride technique to make this happen.
Generally you need to support yourself and the slide by having your inside foot out touching the ground - many times you will pivot the bike around on your foot. Sliding around to the left is easier than to the right because you are able to keep your right toes on the rear brake while your left foot can be already placed on the ground for support. Going right you have to keep your inside foot (right foot) up on the brake until you have slid at least 1/4 way around the corner.
In difficult situations you can use the Scandinavian Flick technique, and the resulting increase in bike lean angle and transfer of body inertia to help swing the rear of the bike around. You can also use an available tree root, dirt mound, or ledge to help facilitate this should they be angled the correct direction.
For more info on the DirtWise Academy of Offroad Riding schools and Instructional DVDs please visit www.shanewatts.com
Shane
discuss this tip...

Drifting is our third Advanced Fundamental skill, and it is essentially the same actions and execution as we used for last month’s topic, which was Grinding. Except unlike with grinding where we are sliding the bike pretty much straight along the edge of an obstacle, with drifting we are sliding the bike around the arc of a corner situation. This drifting skill is a huge help in us being able to maintain control of the bike while maximizing your ability to roost around a corner. Make sure to practice this skill in varying conditions and situations such as loose ground, hard pack, gravel, and even pavement if possible.
To be able to drift your bike well you need a good understanding and ability to adjust the three key points of cornering, which are 1. Throttle position, 2. Lean angle, and 3. your body position in relationship to the Principle of “The 90 Degrees of Traction”. We will discuss these more soon in our upcoming cornering article.
Find a smooth location, preferably with consistent traction, and start doing some varying sized circles, slowly increasing your speed until the rear tire starts breaking traction. You then just go a little faster focusing on achieving a continual drift. You maintain and control the drift by adjusting the 3 key points and using counter steering. If your bike is not sliding enough you either apply one or more of the following; 1. more throttle, 2. increased bike lean angle, 3. or turn the front wheel more towards the inside of the corner you are going around. Which one to adjust is dependent upon the conditions present. We will discuss this in next month’s article.
We give instruction and show actual demonstrations of this in Volume 1 of our new series of Advanced Instructional DVDs, that is now on sale through our online store. You can view some examples of this skill in the Promo teaser for Volume 1 at http://www.shanewatts.com Make sure you check it out!
About me:
http://www.shanewatts.com/bio

Now a days good motocross tracks have a lot of ruts, especially this time of years as the ground is soft. Knowing a few simple riding techniques and practice methods can dramatically improve your control. Check out this video of AJ Catanzaro practicing on the turn track at Club MX.
http://www.gsmxs.com/free-mx-riding-tips/railing-rut-corners

Scott Plesseinger is putting on 2 diffrent races Motocross race on 11/16/2014, Then Hare scramble the following week. The track has some major updates. The pro races have 1000.00 pro purses.
Please check out www.paradiseoffroadpark.org. See you at the races.

There are many beliefs that your thousands of daily thoughts group together into ending beliefs of your situations and things in your life. Let's look at one example.
Your bike is over a year old and getting a little loose. You choose to focus on your bike being old, you think you can't afford a new bike. You continue to think about the short comings of your bike. You don't think it's fast enough, doesn't look good and so on. These types of thoughts, cause the same type of feelings which attract more of the same. You have your mind (your internal radio frequency) on a negative channel. These things about your bike maybe true but that doesn't mean you have to think and feel negative about your bike. You can choose thoughts of gratitude and love about your bike. Things like being grateful that you have a bike, be grateful that it starts easy, the power is smooth, the clutch works good, you're used to it as it fits you like a glove and any other things you can be grateful for and love about your bike. By focusing on these things you are on a positive frequency that will bring more of the same situations, people, money, conditions, results and luck to you.
I know it's hard to believe and it sounds naive, too simple, but it is true and it is simple. All you have to do is believe and try and you will soon see that it is indeed true. But you're trying has to be real and sincere for it to work. You can't have the negative thoughts and feelings like okay I'll try it but I know it's not going to work. You can't fool a natural law just as you can't fool gravity. You have to commit, be sincere and try your best for the best to come out of you.
You can take this practice into all parts of your life. Always being aware of what you can be grateful for at your home, driving in your truck, going to the super market. At your home you can be thankful for the couch and TV as you sit down and relax after a long day. Just take a few seconds to be aware and feel thankful for them. The same goes for when you eat, brush your teeth or take a shower. Be aware and thankful for your truck or car when you go somewhere. Notice how fortunate you are when you go shopping for groceries at the super market. Be thankful for all the food that's available to you. These are things we do everyday but take them for granted. Instead of being totally present in each moment and feeling how fortunate we already are we spend most of our time being up in our heads thinking about what we want to do next and all the other thoughts that take us out of the present moment. Each present moment is where life really is.
Most people are looking for something extra, something more to feel fulfilled, happy, more and then they'll be satisfied. But the problem with always wanting more is that as soon as we get it we are looking for more again, enough never arrives. The more we get the more we want. When all along what we should do is realize that what we already have is great and by realizing that and being thankful for what we already have we can feel amazing now. At first this new awareness may seem like a lot to do but I promise you it will very soon become easy as you feel the benefits. The way you will start to feel will be amazing. I promise you.
People get caught up in trying to get ahead, trying to make more money, have more fun, do more things, we try to keep from getting bored. I was probably one of the worst in this scenario. I was always stressed out and I didn't even know it. I thought it was normal. Sadly that is normal for much of our population. To understand better where I'm coming from if you have Net Flix watch The Secret in the documentaries category. Then go to www.thesecret.tv or Amazon and order The Power by Rhonda Byrne (book if you like to read or the audio book on CDs). I like the audio book. The music and sound effects are excellent. Rhonda has done an extraordinary job putting these century old teachings from many famous legendary people into easy to understand and follow ways to improve not only ourselves but human existence. If you have been watching the news lately it's obvious mankind needs some serious help and soon.
If you were going to try a new skill whether physical or mental you wouldn't expect to be great at it right away, not even in a week or two. It's the same with changing the way you think and feel. You start off with baby steps and work up from there.
A good exercise to start with is to notice your thoughts. (from the book Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life by Steven C. Hayes, PH.D). Your mind is thinking thousands of thoughts a day. Research has found an average of 60,000 thoughts per day. Though the need for humans to protect themselves and evolve thoughts have become automatic. We are always thinking. Thoughts are so much on auto pilot that most of the time we aren't even aware we're doing it, much like breathing. Until now were you aware of your breathing?
More info at http://www.thesecret.tv
Gary Semics
Professional Motocross Trainer
If you're serious about improving your motocross skills, checkout my website for additional tips and training resources.

So what was the one riding tip you heard and suddenly clicked with when you went riding and could feel yourself riding better, also bonus for the one tip that made you start whipping better.
Mine was using more front brake and less front brake for cornering when I first started riding track. Really transitioned my cornering and made me corner a lot better.

Of course to get really good at motocross cornering it takes time. After all it takes time to get good at any form of art and motocross cornering is an art form. Sure you have to have some talent, know all the techniques inside and out and then practice it frequently over a long period of time.
There’s much more to cornering than just leaning over and going through the turn. There are things like the angle of the corners, whether they’re banked or off-camber, sharp or sweeping, and the conditions of the track. Then there are the techniques of cornering between the rider and motorcycle. There are even techniques that affect the handling of the motorcycle in the corner. These techniques make the motorcycle either hold the track or brake loose and pivot, slide through the corner.
In order to do a corner fast you need to carry as much speed as possible and as long as possible into the corner, slow yourself down just enough to still have control at the exit transition, (the exit transition is where you go from braking to accelerating) and then get on the gas as soon and as hard as possible. In order to carry a lot of speed into the corners, you need to have a fast and late approach transition (the approach transition is where you go from accelerating to braking). With this in mind, we can understand that a very important part of cornering is braking. To be good at cornering, you have to be good at braking.
Of course, all through the corner, you have to maintain complete relaxed control. Tightness and mistakes will only make you tired and slow you down, if not make you crash. Remember, you can only try as hard, and go as fast, as you can do the basic techniques correctly and maintain relaxed control. So, if you’re tight or making mistakes, you will benefit by slowing down, which in turn will allow you to learn how to go faster.
In others words, it takes much more finesse than just charging into the turns at full speed and hoping you’ll be able to make it when you get in there. You have to constantly anticipate exactly what is going to happen just before it happens. You have to know the exact line that you want to be on. That line should take you to the best possible traction for the exit transition. You see, it’s very important to know exactly where your front tire is going, so you can find the best traction at the most critical part of the turn. This is where you’re going to be turning the most, at the exit transition. Again, make sure your front tire is going exactly where you want it to go. If you’re doing the techniques correctly, the back tire will also go exactly where you want it to go. For much more in-depth cornering info check out my DVD #7 (All about Cornering) and/or Vo II DVD #4 (MX Corner Speed - Beyond the Basics). My newest Volume 3 DVD Series breaks all the important techniques of Motocross down even further. See free previews and order DVD discs or Streams online at; www.motocrossdvds.com

Here are two basic tips that will help you increase your motocross corning speed. They're are not difficult, but as many as 90% of c riders don't do them! If you want to win, mastering cornering techniques is crucial.
This video demonstrates the common differences between a C and B rider. Learn about corning techniques and more from my free riding tips and Technique DVDs and Streams at:http://www.motocrossdvds.com
Gary Semics
Pro Motorcross Trainer
Follow me by clicking on "follow this blog" in the upper right corner. Then you'll be notified when I post new tips.
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Have you noticed Ken Roczen keeping his feet on the pegs through berms? Sometimes even deep berms. How does he manage this difficult maneuver? He practices the techniques that apply. I’ve been teaching these practice techniques since 1990. Here’s a clip from my 2nd video showing it, it's from the “Making the MC and Rider Become 1” DVD or Stream. 28 Techniques DVDs/Streams. Save big on Value Packs.
https://youtu.be/mQSpZg0GESE

This is it, tomorrow, my first time with my yz250 on a mxtrack.
Any pointers in not what to do, im a road/track racer, different ball game.. I just have a bit of knowledge on how bikes work.
Just wanna have a good start/footin to build from.
Main aim is to go out and have fun! Get to know my bike. But advice would be very appreciated.
Thanks ;-)

When tackling long, soft, silty berms you need to gauge the maximum force that you can place on the soft soil, that makes up that trail situation, to support the tyres adequately from blowing through the wall of the berm.
If the berm has already been blown out in a certain section, you will need to turn slightly more aggressively off the banked surface earlier in the berm. Using that initial portion of the berm to pivot slightly sharper will allow you then to "reconnect" with the remaining berm for the rest of the corner.
A more aggressive version of this same technique can be implemented to help you hop out of a rut that doesn’t have a desirable ending or is full of water. Using a variation of the 180 wheelie you maximize the effect by getting hard on the gas and pushing/bouncing your body down into the bike's seat, which magnifies the compression and rebound of the suspension, to achieve the necessary launch of the front wheel out of the rut at the precise moment. It is most critical to get the front wheel up and over the inside edge of the rut so as it doesn’t slide out. Hopefully the rear tyre will also have enough rebound effect to hop over that edge also. If not just stay on the gas anyway and control the bike with your grinding and drifting skills.
Practice makes perfect, so get out there, find a good berm and hit it over and over!
Shane
About Shane
Additional Riding Tips & Training Resources

Precise wheel placement is an integral of you being an efficient, safe, and skilled rider out on the trails. This is the first of our three Advanced Fundamental skills that we need to practice and master.
The ability to control the exact placement of your wheels whilst out on the trail, and to vary the placement of your tires by just an inch or two has a huge effect on your speed, safety, and energy use. By executing this well you can avoid many of the nasty ruts, roots, rocks, and bumps on the trail. Here are some exercises you can use to improve your wheel placement precision. Start off with being able to exactly follow a roost mark across the paddock. Utilizing the skills and techniques we learnt from practicing our previous general fundamental exercises (Stop & Go, and Slow Ride) we will have a good execution of maneuvering our upper body weight to maintain balance and direction of the motorcycle, plus adjusting the throttle, clutch, and handlebars to keep the bike on the exact desired piece of trail. Always remember to look ahead for increased balance. As with any skill it is best to isolate it and practice mastering it in a safe, controlled environment, progressing to a more advanced level in small increments, such as next riding along some train track wooden sleepers, and then along the top of the actual train tracks.
We will show actual demonstrations of this in our new Advanced Instructional DVD that will be available for purchase in mid February. These skills will also be shown on this Advanced DVD Vol. #1 Promo teaser that you will be able to view on our new, updated website that goes live on Jan 13. Make sure you check it out!
http://www.shanewatts.com/
Stay tuned for more exclusive off-road riding tips featured in the March issue of the ThumperTalk newsletter. - Shane

Jumping a motocross bike is one of the most fun and exciting aspects of riding a dirt bike. At 60 years of age I've been jumping motocross bikes for a half a century and I can still remember the first time I caught air. If you're already jumping you know what I mean. If you're not you... click here to read more. Comment and post photos if you have any from the first time.

On the steeper and slipperier hills it is also more critical that you stand up so as you have the ability to get more weight over the front of the bike if you need it to limit any big wheelies, but more importantly so you can get more traction. A lot of people think that you get more traction on uphills if you sit down. Well, actually that's wrong. Not only can you gain more traction by standing but you can also manage that traction much better. We like to call this the leveraging technique.
To do this the most effectively your goal is to have the front wheel just skimming across the ground or possibly pulling a very slight wheelie. In this position the total combined weight of you and your bike is being leveraged onto the rear tyre to provide maximum possible traction for the conditions present. This enables you to then use more power. You control the precise height of the front tyre by adjusting your body position - too high, move forward, too low, move back. Again, this technique allows you to apply maximum power and gain maximum traction for all conditions - the key is to be able to move your body weight to your advantage.
Sitting down doesn't allow you to do that anywhere near as effectively. When there is big variations in traction over a small distance you can get a better advantage in gaining traction by coordinating more aggressive pulling on the bars and the bouncing down of your body weight on the slipperier portions of trail. This leveraging technique is a little more tiring, and definitely way more forearm fatiguing but it provides you better ability to conquer the hill. If you didn't make it and get stuck on the hill because you were sitting, and thus were limited in making it over the top by the negative results associated with that seated position, well you're now going to expend a whole heap more energy trying to make it the rest of the way compared to what you would have used when standing up.
You can learn more about this technique and many others in the new DirtWise Advanced Instructional DVD - Volume #4 coming out in mid October 2012. Visit www.shanewatts.com for more information!
Keep on Roosting!
Shane Watts
discuss this tip in the Off-Road Riding Technique Forum

During these winter months there is a lot less traction when going around slick, muddy corners that have a flat surface than when in drier conditions. This means that you definitely need to get as comfortable and skilled with your bike sliding around and drifting through the corner while in both the seated and standing position. Be careful while braking on the entry to a flat corner as there will be a greater tendency for the wheels to lock up and slide out, most likely resulting in a crash. Going around a tight or more open corner, you will need to be continually adjusting the 3 key points of cornering, which are:
1. Your body position on the bike (and how it relates to the 90 degrees of traction principle).
2. The lean angle of your bike.
3. Your throttle position.
While roosting around these corners, the goal is to maintain a smooth, consistent arc. You want to position your body at the very front of the seat, and “on top” of your bike when it is leant over through the corner so as you can gain extra traction by “weighting” the outside footpeg. A lot of times in these slippery conditions the bike will start sliding/drifting on you therefore it is important to help control your bike by using counter-steering of the handlebars, along with continued adjustment of the above three key points. If possible, try to find and use a banked surface to help stop your wheels from sliding out, or even utilize any clumps of mud or slop to support your wheels.
To really fast track your learning with this essential skill, try to find an open space that has a smooth yet consistently slippery surface and then start riding slow circle of about 15-20 feet in diameter. As you get comfortable start going faster without making a bigger circle. Eventually the rear wheel will begin to spin and slide, especially if you give your bike a quick blip of the throttle to initiate the spinning action. You want to keep the wheel spinning somewhat and try to slide/drift continual circles without stopping, controlling the bike with our key points. When you start getting good at this skill it is so much fun to do this drifting exercise. You will love it!
We will have an in depth analysis and demonstrations in our upcoming DirtWise Advanced Instructional DVD – Volume 2, which will focus on the techniques you use to master Braking, Cornering, and riding through Tight trees. Visit www.shanewatts.com for more info on this and the DirtWise Academy of Offroad Riding schools.
Shane
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